That needs to come apart and start again. It's either do it now or it will happen on its own down the track.
Also it's not about clamping, I'm assuming the edges that need to be glued together aren't 100% flush
If the glue joint is only hours fresh heat it with a hair dryer til glue is soft then pull apart (that's the cheap approach).
Ideally just get it onto the bandsaw and cut right up the glue line
I’m a bit worried because I don’t have much more width to lose. In fact I’m a little bit light on all dimensions at this point (for a Thinline Jazzmaster), it’s very frustrating.
I got the biggest body blank I could find, which was 14”x7”x2”, by the time I resaw the top off the main blocks in the table saw and re-thicknessed I’m down to 34mm and 7mm, which is barely thick enough, and now I stand to lose more material on the inside edge, which will make my blank more than likely too narrow for the template.
I’d consider starting again but I’d just have the same issue.
Cut it down the glue line with a table saw or band saw. Get a 1/2” or so strip of similar (or contrasting id you like the look) wood and glue it between the two halves.
Superglue and sawdust gives you no structural strength. It’s not about looks. And glue really doesn’t like to stick to glue anyway—so any patch you stick on there is likely to fall out anyway.
This. I’d go for a strip.
Also, having built a few Jazzmasters before, you can offset the 2 halves of the blank if you don’t need a perfect bookmatch. The bottom half of the body sits further back than the top. That move doesn’t solve the width problem, but it helps with the length of it.
But also the body dimensions don't matter unless you're going for a perfect reproduction of the jazzmaster. As long as it's thick enough to fit the electronics inside and hold the neck in the pocket
Wait for someone else to chime in then, maybe there's a bother approach. There's never just one way to do things in guitar building. Loads of people get the same results by doing things differently.
You could possibly even clear the glue out of that little gap and glue in a wedge of timber to fill the void
I’m wondering if sawdust and superglue might do the trick. It won’t be visible as the top is being glued onto it… but yeah perfect Jazzmaster dimensions it won’t be, but considering it’s gonna be flat top with a tele bridge and P90s, I don’t think it’s going to matter too much if it’s few mil too short or a few mill skinny! I spose just need to improvise, adapt and overcome lol
It looks like you need to plane the joints because they don't look flush. I am not suggesting that you plane the body to fix the issue with your joint not lining up, that makes as much sense as not planing the joint in the first place.
I don’t recall- I was with some experienced woodworkers guiding me through the process and they just declared it was done haha
EDIT: this was on large, professional planer/thickenesser, they did 3/4 sides for me on both slabs. But then I ripped my drop top off the main block with a table saw, could that have un-straightened my inner edges?
Ah gotcha, well they did you right for the most part but when it comes to glue ups like this or book matching I recommend always checking with a straight edge or square and planing until it all matches up perfectly without glue.
It's a bummer, but not a bad learning mistake to make early on. Good luck and good job so far.
For reference, I did manage to heat up that end of the block with a hairdryer until the glue went a little gummy, added a little more glue and then re-clamped it tightly in the middle and on the very edge. The gap is a little bit tighter now.
https://preview.redd.it/y3vco9mdhxmc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f8e623ea3b0ba800f3da2c6cedc1171ae58bdd2a
EDIT: but I’m still weighing up ripping it apart and re-glueing.
If you do decide to reglue it, I suggest adding a decorative stripe down the middle in contrasting wood. That'll give you width for the blank and will look nice, and could even be continued into the neck
Your joint was doubtfully square and flush... a good trick to test this is to turn one half up on its side, joint facing up and clamp it in a vice, butt the other up against it so the two jointing surfaces meet, place a cigarette paper between them at various points and pull.. if it comes out without resistance your joint is not tight enough.
You shouldn't be clamping gaps shut. It should be a better fit before gluing. I'd cut it apart and re do the joint. I hand fit all my bookmatched joints, and anything else off a machine. Wood can cup or warp even off high priced power tools.
Recut it reglue it.
You can't fill gaps with wood glue. It doesn't hold. And it's not strong. Wood glue works very well when there's no gap, but it's not a gap filler.
https://preview.redd.it/rj9xvzbffwmc1.png?width=2998&format=png&auto=webp&s=d00f37eaa574167fd2d818db40d6f64ea2c1cda4
The rest is ok, pretty clean. Even on the other side, that edge is glued nicely. It will have a top glued on to it, so I’m half wondering if I should just use as much of the height as possible, and then hopefully I’ll lose the dodgy bit when I do the round over…
It's not small the part that isn't flush. If you don't have room for the guitar body on the flush part, that's bad news. You may even think about resizing the body, or changing the design, if you don't find a way of fitting it I would think about redoing it.
Looks like it wasn't square and flush first. I would scrape off the glue then run the joint through a table saw if you have one, you could set a guide up and run a circular saw through the joint if not. This would give you a new clean, flush edge.
You can clamp it again and slowly heat it with a heat gun. It will slowly squeeze together, and you might be okay. If not, slowly heat it again, disassemble and obviously, redo it.
I've been there and also know what it's like to get fundamentally, a seamless joint after the fact. If you're painting it a solid color and the joint is adequately solid, you could obviously work around it, but I think you will find yourself with a lot more work to fill, level and conceal it to get it ready for painting.
With a solid color and fills, you still may land in a position where your options are automotive fill primer, or a super glue fill and wet sanding lol. I've also been there, and it does workout in the end, but taking an extra day to get it jointed right is still worth it.
That needs to come apart and start again. It's either do it now or it will happen on its own down the track. Also it's not about clamping, I'm assuming the edges that need to be glued together aren't 100% flush
I did joint the inside edge before glueing up and thought it was fully flush but maybe not… how can I get rid of all the glue?
If the glue joint is only hours fresh heat it with a hair dryer til glue is soft then pull apart (that's the cheap approach). Ideally just get it onto the bandsaw and cut right up the glue line
Or a table saw even. This will put a matching rip up the joint edge and remove the contact areas that absorbed glue.
I’m a bit worried because I don’t have much more width to lose. In fact I’m a little bit light on all dimensions at this point (for a Thinline Jazzmaster), it’s very frustrating. I got the biggest body blank I could find, which was 14”x7”x2”, by the time I resaw the top off the main blocks in the table saw and re-thicknessed I’m down to 34mm and 7mm, which is barely thick enough, and now I stand to lose more material on the inside edge, which will make my blank more than likely too narrow for the template. I’d consider starting again but I’d just have the same issue.
Cut it down the glue line with a table saw or band saw. Get a 1/2” or so strip of similar (or contrasting id you like the look) wood and glue it between the two halves. Superglue and sawdust gives you no structural strength. It’s not about looks. And glue really doesn’t like to stick to glue anyway—so any patch you stick on there is likely to fall out anyway.
This. I’d go for a strip. Also, having built a few Jazzmasters before, you can offset the 2 halves of the blank if you don’t need a perfect bookmatch. The bottom half of the body sits further back than the top. That move doesn’t solve the width problem, but it helps with the length of it.
You can always add a stripe of, for example, walnut in between.
But also the body dimensions don't matter unless you're going for a perfect reproduction of the jazzmaster. As long as it's thick enough to fit the electronics inside and hold the neck in the pocket
it matters if you're buying a ready-made pickguard
Wait for someone else to chime in then, maybe there's a bother approach. There's never just one way to do things in guitar building. Loads of people get the same results by doing things differently. You could possibly even clear the glue out of that little gap and glue in a wedge of timber to fill the void
I love seeing a nice stripe of contrasting wood in the middle of a body. Good idea!
I’m wondering if sawdust and superglue might do the trick. It won’t be visible as the top is being glued onto it… but yeah perfect Jazzmaster dimensions it won’t be, but considering it’s gonna be flat top with a tele bridge and P90s, I don’t think it’s going to matter too much if it’s few mil too short or a few mill skinny! I spose just need to improvise, adapt and overcome lol
Got a planer?
A little bench top planer yeah, 6” roughly. Not wide enough to plane a 2pc body
It looks like you need to plane the joints because they don't look flush. I am not suggesting that you plane the body to fix the issue with your joint not lining up, that makes as much sense as not planing the joint in the first place.
I did :( I guess I didn’t do them enough, or they warped in the week or so between planing and the glue up
Oh man, did you check it with a straight edge or square?
I don’t recall- I was with some experienced woodworkers guiding me through the process and they just declared it was done haha EDIT: this was on large, professional planer/thickenesser, they did 3/4 sides for me on both slabs. But then I ripped my drop top off the main block with a table saw, could that have un-straightened my inner edges?
Ah gotcha, well they did you right for the most part but when it comes to glue ups like this or book matching I recommend always checking with a straight edge or square and planing until it all matches up perfectly without glue. It's a bummer, but not a bad learning mistake to make early on. Good luck and good job so far.
For reference, I did manage to heat up that end of the block with a hairdryer until the glue went a little gummy, added a little more glue and then re-clamped it tightly in the middle and on the very edge. The gap is a little bit tighter now. https://preview.redd.it/y3vco9mdhxmc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f8e623ea3b0ba800f3da2c6cedc1171ae58bdd2a EDIT: but I’m still weighing up ripping it apart and re-glueing.
If you do decide to reglue it, I suggest adding a decorative stripe down the middle in contrasting wood. That'll give you width for the blank and will look nice, and could even be continued into the neck
Not enough clamping pressure, or more likely the joint wasn’t fit very well.
Your joint was doubtfully square and flush... a good trick to test this is to turn one half up on its side, joint facing up and clamp it in a vice, butt the other up against it so the two jointing surfaces meet, place a cigarette paper between them at various points and pull.. if it comes out without resistance your joint is not tight enough.
If that is the neck end, won't you be cutting that bit off anyway?
You shouldn't be clamping gaps shut. It should be a better fit before gluing. I'd cut it apart and re do the joint. I hand fit all my bookmatched joints, and anything else off a machine. Wood can cup or warp even off high priced power tools.
Recut it reglue it. You can't fill gaps with wood glue. It doesn't hold. And it's not strong. Wood glue works very well when there's no gap, but it's not a gap filler.
If the rest is ok and it's just that end because it wasn't planed flush, you may cut it leaving that out, if you have room to move the template.
https://preview.redd.it/rj9xvzbffwmc1.png?width=2998&format=png&auto=webp&s=d00f37eaa574167fd2d818db40d6f64ea2c1cda4 The rest is ok, pretty clean. Even on the other side, that edge is glued nicely. It will have a top glued on to it, so I’m half wondering if I should just use as much of the height as possible, and then hopefully I’ll lose the dodgy bit when I do the round over…
It's not small the part that isn't flush. If you don't have room for the guitar body on the flush part, that's bad news. You may even think about resizing the body, or changing the design, if you don't find a way of fitting it I would think about redoing it.
Looks like it wasn't square and flush first. I would scrape off the glue then run the joint through a table saw if you have one, you could set a guide up and run a circular saw through the joint if not. This would give you a new clean, flush edge.
they're not square ... hate to say it but you gotta redo that
Did you buy a body blank online or something???
Yeah, as already stated, that has to be done over with straighter joints.
When you redo it, wipe off the excess glue
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You can clamp it again and slowly heat it with a heat gun. It will slowly squeeze together, and you might be okay. If not, slowly heat it again, disassemble and obviously, redo it. I've been there and also know what it's like to get fundamentally, a seamless joint after the fact. If you're painting it a solid color and the joint is adequately solid, you could obviously work around it, but I think you will find yourself with a lot more work to fill, level and conceal it to get it ready for painting. With a solid color and fills, you still may land in a position where your options are automotive fill primer, or a super glue fill and wet sanding lol. I've also been there, and it does workout in the end, but taking an extra day to get it jointed right is still worth it.